Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has been told that one of his two January signings, Adam Idah, has distorted his team.
Brought in from Norwich on loan on transfer deadline day, the young Irish centre-forward made quite the impact in his first few games for the club. Idah scored two and assisted another in his maiden two Celtic appearances.
Kyogo Furuhashi was initially dropped for the youngster, but Brendan Rodgers recently began playing the pair together. Since introducing this tactical tweak, the Japanese hitman has scored two in two.
Idah hasn’t hit the back of the net since, though, and he has only served to make a negative impact on the team since his arrival. That is according to pundit and current Falkirk midfielder Stephen McGinn.
The brother of John spoke on the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast: “Adam Idah looks like a promising player with lots of potential”, he said.
“But bringing him to start has probably disrupted the only good bits of Celtic’s team this season in terms of the way they finished before the break with the midfield three of [Callum] McGregor, [Matt] O’Riley and [Paulo] Bernardo.
“That is probably where they had the edge over Rangers in terms of the quality in midfield.
“That’s been broken up to fit in Idah.”
Gaffer Rodgers rates Idah highly. He was ‘really excited’ by him and even made comparisons between him and Moussa Dembele when he initially joined the club.
He does offer something different to what Celtic’s other strikers do, and some of his link-up play on Saturday was impressive.
It remains to be seen whether the current system of playing Idah and Kyogo together will continue on Sunday at Motherwell but regardless, the way the Hoops play their football needs a much greater tempo and urgency to it.
